Is cannabis the answer? – Family of ill East Durham boy to use controversial method to treat epilepsy

THE family of a desperately ill baby boy are exploring a highly controversial method to treat his condition – cannabis.

Rik Osborn, whose one-year-old son Oliver suffers from aggressive epilepsy, says he and his family have found that there have been cases of the drug being used to successfully control the condition in children in the United States.

He said the cannabis – legalised in certain US states – used for treating epilepsy, is in liquid form and the part used to get “high” is taken away.

Rik and Oliver’s mum Danielle Coils, 28, are fundraising and praying for new medical treatment for Oliver’s strain of the illness, which is called migrating partial epilepsy in infancy.

Rik, 29, of Wadham Close, in Peterlee, said: “Hopefully it could be a step forward.

“I’ve read about a little girl out there, similar to Oliver, who it has been used on.

“It is a strange route to take, but at the end of the day, when you’re up against the wall, when surgery is not an option, it’s got to be something to consider.”

Sufferers of Oliver’s condition – which sees him have seizures up to 100 times a day – don’t usually live past the age of seven.

But the family are hopeful that alternative forms of treatment become available and they are pinning their hopes on the cannabis in a last-ditch attempt to help their son.

Rik added: “From what I’ve heard they put a drop of it under the person’s tongue.

“It’s hard because people say that ‘if it’s not legalised why would you give it to children?’

“At the end of the day you want what’s best for your child and for them to be with you for as long as possible.”

He said the cannabis strain, named Charlotte’s Web after a girl helped by the drug, has seen seizure rates reduce by 80 to 90 per cent.

“Little things like that give you hope, said Rik, who is taking part in a 140-mile Coast 2 Coast bike ride to raise funds for the Epilepsy Action charity on June 6.

He and Chris Baker, cousin Kyle Osborn, Christopher Hall, James Hall, Gary Colledge, Paul Fletcher and Greg O’Brien will ride from Whitehaven to Roker over three days, with David Purvis and Colin Docherty in a support vehicle.